Ubuntu – Wubi doesn’t boot after upgrade

10.0412.04wubi

I had Wubi with Ubuntu 10.04. I just upgraded it to 12.04, using the update manager. After the upgrade finished, I rebooted, but now, when I select "Ubuntu" from the boot menu, I get a command-line prompt and cannot continue.

When I write "boot" in the prompt, I get "No kernel loaded"…

Please help, I have important files in my Wubi…

Best Answer

Steps to make Wubi work again

When you reach the prompt, try those commands (one at each line)

insmod ntfs
set root=`(hd0,msdos2)`

In the second line i reference (hd0,msdos2) as being the partition where Windows is installed (and Wubi by extension). This means the partition is on the first disk (hd0) and on the second partition (msdos2). This is true in a normal Windows7 setup. If you are using Windows XP this will probably be (hd0, msdos1).

loopback loop0 /ubuntu/disks/root.disk
set root=loop0

I think that path is the default, if it raises any error just boot on Windows and find the right path.

linux /vmlinuz root=/dev/sda2 loop=/ubuntu/disks/root.disk ro  text
initrd /initrd.img

Again here i make the assumption that the path provided is correct and Wubi is installed on the second partition of the only disk (the usual). If this is not the case update the provided path and replace sda2 for the correct device.

This should boot you in "terminal mode" (no GUI). If it starts ok you can try issuing the following command, after login:

sudo update-grub

After that when you reboot the grub entries should be corrected.

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